thoughts & writings

18
Sep

As we head towards the annual fundraising dinner this October, we’ve been considering the significance of this year’s theme: Perspective. We hope you’ll plan to join us on October 20th! Details and tickets are here.

Perspective – pərˈspektiv/. noun

1. the art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point.”a perspective drawing”

2. a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.

Ouch! This response more than rattled me.He’s got this wrong! That’s not what I’m doing. That’s not what I meant! Flustered, I fumbled through a quick conversation and we parted ways.

That’s not what I’m doing, right?As I thought deeply about his words later that night, I moved from flustered to convicted.I realized that he was right. That was my attitude.He detected it long before I did.Read More

01
Nov

The phrase “ground score”, once unfamiliar to us, has become an activity we keep on our minds, pretty much every day. You don’t have to hang around our friends for long before you begin to hear stories of amazing ground scores. It usually will be the perfect item at the perfect time of need. Sometimes there is some planning involved, like frequenting taxi cab loading and unloading spaces where people often drop items, but most of the time it is about being aware and looking in places most people do not look.

03
Oct

Dehydration, lack of food, and lack of restful sleep are very real and present dangers faced by many of our friends, almost daily. The volume of time consumed each day in the acquisition of the essentials for life can be overwhelming. We often notice several of these life sustaining necessities being sacrificed to do what seems to be just hanging out doing nothing. Passers-by often interpret the scene as lazy young people who should just get a job, or just do anything but sit in the park. Hours pass, meal times come and go, with no water in sight. All this while literally sitting in place,Read More

The culture of street kid life is inherently transient – beds, clothes, and meals come and go on a day by day basis. It’s not uncommon to see someone flying a sign on 16th street mall to raise money for a Greyhound bus ticket, saving up a bit each day in the hope of moving on from Denver. The promised land is often the promise of job in a faraway city, or the dream of a new street to hang out on or a new climate.

On 16th street a few weeks ago, we encountered a man on his way to Ogden, Utah, who had rolled off a train too early and found, instead, the Queen City skyline rising ahead of him. I also often think of a friend I met four years ago, an older woman who had been traveling across the

03
Jul

For those of us who hear and see the local Denver news, “Fear the homeless” and “Fear downtown” have been major themes this week. In fact the fear is selling big. Fear always sells. That’s not to say that violence isn’t higher on the streets than normal this summer. I believe it has been. Many of our young houseless friends are scared too.

Some of the violence we’ve now seen on tape is truly terrible and bizarre. There are at least 3 documented expressions of Read More

15
Jun

I met Kevin and Serena soon after I started working at Dry Bones, in the Fall of 2014. By the time I met them, they’d both kicked addictions to drugs and they were good friends, sleeping in a group of 4-5, with our other friend David, south of the city. Both had stories of difficult childhoods, families they weren’t able to connect with, and who were unable to mirror them in some pretty important ways. Both Kevin and Serena are brilliant.Read More

10
Nov

Being at home is not the same as being in a house. However, the brick and mortar structure provides spaces that represent different parts of being at “home.” If we think about Dry Bones as if it were a house and the rooms of the house for their different uses and functions, we can lay out the work of Dry Bones like we lay out the rooms of the house.

26
Oct

Right now we have “home” on our mind at Dry Bones. I mean, it’s a pretty normal thing for us to be thinking about “homelessness,” but thinking extensively about “home” is another matter. It is the theme of our fundraiser, the theme of our conversations, and the theme of our personal work.

28
Jul

We began the summer with an intern retreat. On this retreat, my co-worker Reb, and I were answering questions together. We were sharing stories about our friends on the street and our different responses to situations we’ve encountered, and then one of the interns asked, “What question are you asking in your spiritual life right now?”

Reb looked at me, knowingly, and then replied for both of us: “Is there enough?”Read More

Meta

Dry Bones staff and volunteers are committed to serving the large population of homeless teens and young adults living in downtown Denver. The youth who live on the streets of Denver range in age from 12 into their mid-twenties. Dry Bones connects these young people with resources, nutrition, entertainment, and new friends.